The Flex Fuel Vehicle Era Is Here

Top carmakers have been working to run their vehicles on cleaner and greener fuels

- Shobha Mathur

Last month, Nitin Gadkari, union minister of road transport and highways, drove a 100% bio-ethanol flex-fuel Toyota Innova to an event. Gadkari, who has been the driving force behind the changes in India's motor vehicle policies, has been particularly vocal about the use of locally produced bio-ethanol to power flex-fuel vehicles in India.

He got behind the wheel of the Toyota Innova to drive the point home, urging the Indian automotive industry to adopt ethanol as an eco-friendlier and cost-effective option to petrol.

India ranks third globally in crude oil imports, after China and the US. It imported 87.7% of its crude oil (233.1 MMT) requirements in 2023-24, according to data from the ministry of petroleum and natural gas. To reduce this dependency on oil imports, the government has been promoting electrification in the transport sector, as well as ethanol blending with petrol, and production of compressed biogas.

It isn't just about reducing imports. At the COP26 UN Climate Change Conference 2021 in Glasgow, India had indicated its intent to move away from fossil fuels at the earliest. Since then, there has been a policy push to decarbonize 50% of the country's energy by 2030 and reduce dependency on fossil fuels.

The Indian government is gunning to reduce CO2 emissions by 1 billion tonnes that year in a bid to achieve the larger roadmap of net-zero emissions by 2070.

Flex fuels are a big part of the government's plans to reduce oil imports and go green. As the term suggests, a flex-fuel vehicle is one that is flexible with fuel, in the sense that it can run on pure petrol or with ethanol blends of up to 85% or even 100%.

Since ethanol is sourced from agricultural crops such as sugarcane, corn and wheat, the fuel blend is cleaner as it has lower emissions. In theory, it could also be less costly, particularly with a higher ethanol blend, if it is subsidized by the government.